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PERFECT CONDITION
173 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
February 21, 2016
Not bad, quite good story, worth about a 3.5.
April 19, 2023
Oh wow! I thoroughly enjoyed this book talk about a true page turner. I had flood of emotions as the story reached its conclusions. From happiness to frustration and angst even bittersweet sadness, but that feel good sadness.
The story is almost epic in these different story segments of Robot City's inhabitants.
I'm absolutely loving all the characters and settings. I want to live in Robot City, at least for a brief period.
William F. Wu has done a tremendous job of creating a story that certainly falls in-line with Asimov's vision. The narrative and imagery he's depicted reminds me of I-Robot.
This is certainly one book I'll read again in the future and enjoy it just as much as I did this first read. 😀
The story is almost epic in these different story segments of Robot City's inhabitants.
I'm absolutely loving all the characters and settings. I want to live in Robot City, at least for a brief period.
William F. Wu has done a tremendous job of creating a story that certainly falls in-line with Asimov's vision. The narrative and imagery he's depicted reminds me of I-Robot.
This is certainly one book I'll read again in the future and enjoy it just as much as I did this first read. 😀
July 23, 2022
Is it fair to say I enjoyed this yet it still put me to sleep?
This 160 page book took me a couple weeks to read. It had a lot of dialogue, so it was easy to read, the story and setting were interesting—I love Robot City—I’m not sure why I got bored and hesitant to finish the story. I think it was because I thought this would be a self contained story but it was an episode of a series.
I really like the idea of a couple people stranded on a robot planet and how they try to navigate around using Asimov’s Three Laws. But it was a little boring and low stakes, but the low stakes were kind of charming? Do I need to see a therapist about these conflicted feelings?
I love the illustrations in the back.
This 160 page book took me a couple weeks to read. It had a lot of dialogue, so it was easy to read, the story and setting were interesting—I love Robot City—I’m not sure why I got bored and hesitant to finish the story. I think it was because I thought this would be a self contained story but it was an episode of a series.
I really like the idea of a couple people stranded on a robot planet and how they try to navigate around using Asimov’s Three Laws. But it was a little boring and low stakes, but the low stakes were kind of charming? Do I need to see a therapist about these conflicted feelings?
I love the illustrations in the back.
October 23, 2021
3 sterren.
vind dit verhaal tot nog toe de minste in de serie.. Het verhaal Was van een heel ander niveau. zeker aan het begin leek het te gemaakt
vind dit verhaal tot nog toe de minste in de serie.. Het verhaal Was van een heel ander niveau. zeker aan het begin leek het te gemaakt
November 18, 2020
Isaac Asimov opens the novels with an introduction to the concept and ethics of constructing cybernetic organisms. With the Key to Perihelion under the hands of the robots who are programmed to protect, and mass produce them, Derec and Arielle are still stuck in Robot City; Derec’s memory hasn’t returned and Arielle’s life-threatening disease begins to affect her mind as it progresses into a more advanced stage. Meanwhile an escape pod crash lands on Robot City with only one surviving crew member--a young man on his way to his first year at college—named Jeff. Left in critical condition the robots, with their limited knowledge of human physiology, are forced to implant the young man’s brain into an advanced humanoid robot body in an attempt of fulfilling the First Law of Robotics. The cyborg creates conundrums in the Laws of Robotics and the Laws of Humanics, and like Arielle, the surgery on Jeff unexpectantly, negatively affects his mind creating dangerous anxiety and paranoia. Alluding the robots, Derec and Arielle, as well as friendly new arrivals Alpha and Wolruf, are tasked with apprehending Jeff and helping to restore his mind and body.
July 19, 2019
Overall a good scifi with a bit of a cheesy ending. The name 'cyborg' summarizes it very well - it queries quite a bit how a cyborg would feel and behave even if at times the storyline goes a bit hyperbolic. A fun quick read with no high expectations.
October 9, 2019
Un poco aburrida la trama, introduce un concepto importante en las leyes de la robotica, veremos que tal el siguiente de la serie.
March 7, 2020
Good story, has robots, cyborg, humans and aliens.
April 24, 2020
i think it was funny
July 6, 2022
very good story
April 27, 2025
Plot-wise, this was the strongest so far - enjoying all of them but the toe tip into transhumanism was interesting.
November 22, 2025
I didn't want this to end.
August 29, 2015
This third book of the Robot City series wasn't nearly as good as the first two. In fact, I was pretty disappointed with it. The writer just didn't seem to have it together. Maybe he's a new author. I don't know. The language was stilted and forced. Transitions were left out. It was just bad.
In this book, Derec and Katherine are still trying to locate the lost key so they can leave the planet and get to another planet somewhere. However, the robots of Robot City have hidden it in a well guarded location and it's virtually impossible to get to.
Speaking of Katherine, Derec learns her real name is Ariel and she's a rich daughter of a famous woman from the planet of Aurora. She apparently has an unnamed terminal disease that, although not contagious, has gotten her banned from her home planet and she has been searching the galaxy for a cure. Since Derec, who is very angry in this book for some unknown reason, and Ariel fight a lot, this new knowledge softens his stance some and he feels sorry for her and starts to take it easy on her.
One day, when going through the city's computer, they discover there are three other humans in Robot City. They get excited, thinking these people might have a ship that could get them off world, so they are determined to find them. Meanwhile, a teenager heading to college crash lands in Robot City and nearly dies. The robot medical team doesn't know enough about human physiology to repair his human body, so they create a new robot body and transplant his brain into it, making him a cyborg. Weird how they can do that, but they can't fix his human body, huh? Naturally, he's freaked out, so against their advice, he takes off into the city alone and wanders around. He talks out loud to himself, which is really annoying to read, and he determines that he is the strongest individual on the planet, since he has a robot body, but is still a human and robots have to apply the Three Laws to him. He decides to take over the planet and rule it. Why? No idea. He decides to enlist the two other humans he has found, Derec and Ariel, to help him, so he goes to see them. And gets in a fight with them. Literally. A physical altercation. It's bizarre. He's a very tempestuous individual. He later asks Ariel to have her brain transplanted into a robot body and join him in ruling the world and she actually considers it, thinking this could save her from her disease. How incredibly stupid is that? Jeff, the cyborg, is crazy, so Derec and Ariel give the robots instructions to find him and bring him to them. He is eventually caught and is put under the knife by the medical staff. They ask Derec to get naked and let them scan him. Now they know about male human physiology. Yeah. So, they transplant Jeff's brain back into his old body and fix him up. All it took for them to do that was to scan Derec's naked body. Okay. Whatever. Bad book, as I said. Meanwhile, two of Derec and Ariel's old friends from the first book show up in a one person lander. They decide to send Jeff off to college in it and they would stay in Robot City and continue to search for cures for Ariel's unnamed disease.
It looked to me like the target audience for this book was middle school males. At least it was short, a one day read. And I still like the series and will continue to read on. If you're reading the series, you'll want to read this just to know what is happening. However, it's not much of a stand alone novel, so I'd suggest with starting with the first book and going from there. If you're reading the series, I cautiously recommend it. If not, I don't.
In this book, Derec and Katherine are still trying to locate the lost key so they can leave the planet and get to another planet somewhere. However, the robots of Robot City have hidden it in a well guarded location and it's virtually impossible to get to.
Speaking of Katherine, Derec learns her real name is Ariel and she's a rich daughter of a famous woman from the planet of Aurora. She apparently has an unnamed terminal disease that, although not contagious, has gotten her banned from her home planet and she has been searching the galaxy for a cure. Since Derec, who is very angry in this book for some unknown reason, and Ariel fight a lot, this new knowledge softens his stance some and he feels sorry for her and starts to take it easy on her.
One day, when going through the city's computer, they discover there are three other humans in Robot City. They get excited, thinking these people might have a ship that could get them off world, so they are determined to find them. Meanwhile, a teenager heading to college crash lands in Robot City and nearly dies. The robot medical team doesn't know enough about human physiology to repair his human body, so they create a new robot body and transplant his brain into it, making him a cyborg. Weird how they can do that, but they can't fix his human body, huh? Naturally, he's freaked out, so against their advice, he takes off into the city alone and wanders around. He talks out loud to himself, which is really annoying to read, and he determines that he is the strongest individual on the planet, since he has a robot body, but is still a human and robots have to apply the Three Laws to him. He decides to take over the planet and rule it. Why? No idea. He decides to enlist the two other humans he has found, Derec and Ariel, to help him, so he goes to see them. And gets in a fight with them. Literally. A physical altercation. It's bizarre. He's a very tempestuous individual. He later asks Ariel to have her brain transplanted into a robot body and join him in ruling the world and she actually considers it, thinking this could save her from her disease. How incredibly stupid is that? Jeff, the cyborg, is crazy, so Derec and Ariel give the robots instructions to find him and bring him to them. He is eventually caught and is put under the knife by the medical staff. They ask Derec to get naked and let them scan him. Now they know about male human physiology. Yeah. So, they transplant Jeff's brain back into his old body and fix him up. All it took for them to do that was to scan Derec's naked body. Okay. Whatever. Bad book, as I said. Meanwhile, two of Derec and Ariel's old friends from the first book show up in a one person lander. They decide to send Jeff off to college in it and they would stay in Robot City and continue to search for cures for Ariel's unnamed disease.
It looked to me like the target audience for this book was middle school males. At least it was short, a one day read. And I still like the series and will continue to read on. If you're reading the series, you'll want to read this just to know what is happening. However, it's not much of a stand alone novel, so I'd suggest with starting with the first book and going from there. If you're reading the series, I cautiously recommend it. If not, I don't.
April 7, 2021
[Spoilers below]
Huge disappointment as compared to the prior book in the series. First and foremost, the pacing is uneven and literally nothing relevant happens in this book. We can summarize the sequential plot points below:
1) The main characters try to get a hold of the Key to Perihelion and give up easily early on in the book. The author abandons this plot point and never comes back to it. [this had to potential to progress the storyline and answer questions regarding the nature of both Robot City and the Key]
2) The plot switches to the characters trying to find a Cyborg who is very hard to relate to because he thinks and acts like a total douchebag. Reading the chapters from the Cyborg's viewpoint becomes a painful chore. [filler]
3) Deus Ex Machina moment: Magically, some characters from Book 1 crash land into Robot City with a spaceship and the main characters decide to let the Cyborg use the spaceship to leave Robot City (great job guys, specially after the Cyborg tried to screw you guys over). [filler]
My main beefs:
1) There's a lot of intrigue with finding the Key and the writer abandoning this main plot thread is very disappointing.
2) The plot with the Cyborg has no relevance whatsoever with the overall greater storyline. In fact the switchover from finding the Key to finding the Cyborg is rather abrupt.
3) The likable Robots from Book (Euler, etc) are nowhere to be seen. Robots portrayed in this book are treated as serial numbers and are de-humanized.
4) The main characters (based on the dialogue) are portrayed as 5 year olds. The sexual tension (they clearly like each other) between them both is gone in this book and their back and forth exchanges are one dimensional and devoid of either the playful banter or the passive aggressiveness from Book 2 (this core element from Book 2 made their relationship interesting to read about). This made these characters less likable than in Book 2.
5) At the end of the book, there was no resolution and no outcome, nothing new was learned about Robot City or about the Key.
My recommendation - skip the book.
Huge disappointment as compared to the prior book in the series. First and foremost, the pacing is uneven and literally nothing relevant happens in this book. We can summarize the sequential plot points below:
1) The main characters try to get a hold of the Key to Perihelion and give up easily early on in the book. The author abandons this plot point and never comes back to it. [this had to potential to progress the storyline and answer questions regarding the nature of both Robot City and the Key]
2) The plot switches to the characters trying to find a Cyborg who is very hard to relate to because he thinks and acts like a total douchebag. Reading the chapters from the Cyborg's viewpoint becomes a painful chore. [filler]
3) Deus Ex Machina moment: Magically, some characters from Book 1 crash land into Robot City with a spaceship and the main characters decide to let the Cyborg use the spaceship to leave Robot City (great job guys, specially after the Cyborg tried to screw you guys over). [filler]
My main beefs:
1) There's a lot of intrigue with finding the Key and the writer abandoning this main plot thread is very disappointing.
2) The plot with the Cyborg has no relevance whatsoever with the overall greater storyline. In fact the switchover from finding the Key to finding the Cyborg is rather abrupt.
3) The likable Robots from Book (Euler, etc) are nowhere to be seen. Robots portrayed in this book are treated as serial numbers and are de-humanized.
4) The main characters (based on the dialogue) are portrayed as 5 year olds. The sexual tension (they clearly like each other) between them both is gone in this book and their back and forth exchanges are one dimensional and devoid of either the playful banter or the passive aggressiveness from Book 2 (this core element from Book 2 made their relationship interesting to read about). This made these characters less likable than in Book 2.
5) At the end of the book, there was no resolution and no outcome, nothing new was learned about Robot City or about the Key.
My recommendation - skip the book.
October 21, 2025
Claro ejemplo de subliteratura.
April 8, 2015
Isaac Asimov's Robot City Book 3: Cyborg (1987) 157 pages by William F. Wu.
The adventures of Derec and Katherine who we learn is Ariel continue. After saving the city and figuring out the death of David in book 2, they decide the next course of action is to find a way off the planet. They begin by searching for the key to perihelion that got them to Robot City, and later they learn of more humans in the city and shift their focus to looking for them and the ship that brought them.
Three different authors for the books, but the style is the same. I think they are trying to imitate the style of Asimov, especially the style of his robot stories. They mention over and over First Law, Second Law, etc. It results in a kind of stilted dialog when the humans talk to the robots. It's one of the reasons I think these books could be classified in young adult. I don't have a problem with reading YA novels, they can be excellent. I think that Derek and Ariel may miss some arguments they could make. If they really wanted to get off the planet, they could use Ariel's medical condition and her need to see a specialist (not available in Robot City) as a reason for the robots to help her find a way off back to civilization.
Still the book was enjoyable, I like the characters, and the reading goes quickly.
The adventures of Derec and Katherine who we learn is Ariel continue. After saving the city and figuring out the death of David in book 2, they decide the next course of action is to find a way off the planet. They begin by searching for the key to perihelion that got them to Robot City, and later they learn of more humans in the city and shift their focus to looking for them and the ship that brought them.
Three different authors for the books, but the style is the same. I think they are trying to imitate the style of Asimov, especially the style of his robot stories. They mention over and over First Law, Second Law, etc. It results in a kind of stilted dialog when the humans talk to the robots. It's one of the reasons I think these books could be classified in young adult. I don't have a problem with reading YA novels, they can be excellent. I think that Derek and Ariel may miss some arguments they could make. If they really wanted to get off the planet, they could use Ariel's medical condition and her need to see a specialist (not available in Robot City) as a reason for the robots to help her find a way off back to civilization.
Still the book was enjoyable, I like the characters, and the reading goes quickly.
January 27, 2012
Not a bad addition to the Robot City series, exploring what happens when a human brain gets plugged into a robot body. Not quite as good as the first two books, but not terrible. You can definitely tell that the plot of this whole series wasn't thought out by one person...each author kind of runs with it, tweaking where he sees fit, throwing a plot twist in where it's convenient. I'm definitely sticking around to see what happens to the main characters though!
May 15, 2013
My rating on this series seems to be going down. The first book was 5 stars, then 4, and now 3. I'm still hooked on the story and will read the next and probably all 6 in the series.
The reduced rating on this book is due to the writing style being stilted in my opinion. This would easily be a novel for grade school. I guess the earlier ones would also be appropriate there. I still love this stuff, though!
The reduced rating on this book is due to the writing style being stilted in my opinion. This would easily be a novel for grade school. I guess the earlier ones would also be appropriate there. I still love this stuff, though!
September 3, 2013
Tercero de Robot City, se centra en la idea de cómo se comportaría un cyborg entre robots mientras se oculta entre ellos. Está escrito con poca gracia y forzando las cosas, un bajón tremendo en el nivel de la serie. Avanza en un par de detalles puntuales la trama general (y al final incluso de una manera que roza el ridículo, metido a calzador sin más motivo) pero la historia del cyborg podía haberse quitado que no afectaba a la historia en nada. Novela de relleno, sin más
July 22, 2016
Each subsequent book so far has been noticeably worse than its predecessor - the story started out OK, but Cyborg is just utterly pointless. I'm a little afraid to start #4 now.
The plot circles itself like a dog lying down to sleep, while simultaneously doing a fairly good impression of swiss cheese.
The plot circles itself like a dog lying down to sleep, while simultaneously doing a fairly good impression of swiss cheese.
July 23, 2012
Another quick, fun read in the Robot City series. This one isn't as good as the first two, but far better than Wu's stand alone novels.
I was glad to see some characters from the first story return in this one which will hopefully lead to more development later in the series.
I was glad to see some characters from the first story return in this one which will hopefully lead to more development later in the series.
August 31, 2011
I recommend reading the three books in order to fully appreciate them.
December 2, 2013
Nice robot story with the typical Asimov twist
August 21, 2015
I don't have a lot to say about Cyborg.
Didn't like the writing style. The way important issues that were addressed and the mysteries that were solved felt too forced.
Didn't like the writing style. The way important issues that were addressed and the mysteries that were solved felt too forced.
August 22, 2016
This book again takes the Laws as the cornerstone on which to build a nice adventure. The Cyborg idea seems a bit underused though, the implications are simply humongous.
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March 18, 2018Presenta una realidad hipotética para pensar...
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